What Ana Does

It's always fun for me to look back at the posts that got the most views of the year. Here's the 2015 list: 1 -  Throwback Thursday - Paris  (Oct. 15): That fantastic black and white picture Dave took of the three of the lovely ladies in Paris wearing scarves. Oh man, that was a great trip! 2 -  4th Annual NCY Weekend (April 29 ): Chronicled our annual weekend in New York. 3 -  Master Bath Gets Rugs (June 30): I invested in more FLOR carpet tiles and the results are amazing. To this day I still look at the floor in my bathroom and not hate it like I do the rest of the room. Little victories. 4-  My Favorite Mornings (Feb. 28): This was a picture of the coffee table in the living room spread out with all my favorite things and enjoying my Sunday morning of ME time. 5 -  New Kitchen Chairs - Perfecto (Oct. 19): We got new chairs in the kitchen that push in. This doesn't sound like a big deal but I love my kitchen a little more without having cha...

Looking back on 2015, I read A LOT! Probably more than the year before. So, here's a roundup of my favorite reads: Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo -- This was my FAVORITE read of the year. I didn't put this book down. It's a heist book that was so well drawn, the world-building so well done, I didn't stop swooning. This is the book I recommend when anyone asks "Have you read anything good lately?" Warning: There's a horrible cliffhanger ending. Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir (audiobook) -- What a crazy story this was! Gruesome and bold and fantastically exciting. Good world-building and amazingly deep main characters. The narrators (there are two) were fantastic. I can't wait for the sequel. The Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard -- I really liked this book. Not complete love, but really liked. I'm still not convinced about the "lightening" power, but once I skipped forward I really liked what it turned into. The toppling an evil le...

Here's the thing ... I'm by no means a Star Wars nerd. I generally find hardcore sci-fi stories a little remote and I always thought the plot of the Star Wars movies hard to follow, with too many holes/questions. But I really do like the characters a lot -- you can't go wrong with an orphaned hero (Luke), a sarcastic rogue (Han) and a superstar princess (Leia) all banding together to fight evil.  I just always wished they were all in a better story. But I live with a nerd and we did talk about what the new Star Wars movies were going to be about, especially with the genius storytelling of JJ Abrams and Joss Whedon (Alias and Buffy: How could this go wrong?). And he did buy tickets months in advanced, so I did book a babysitter and we met up with friends to see it who are equally enthusiastic. And the amazing thing about living where we do is the movie theater wasn't annoyingly crowded and we got our favorite seats. And ate peanut M&Ms that I snuck in and ... wer...

Audiobook: 'Heist Society' by Ally Carter Ready by: Angela Dawe Genre: YA Lit, Awesome! I've been thinking about Ally Carter a lot lately because a) her new book comes out on the 22nd and b) I was talking to a 9-year-old friend who was looking for a new series to read. I directed her to Carter's  Gallagher Girls series , but this is a good one, too. So I guess I was a little predisposed to pick up an Ally Carter book when I was at the library last week. And while I read this book about 10 years ago (my first Ally Carter), my memory was fuzzy on the details of the story. In a nutshell, Kat Bishop comes from a family of thieves. She makes an attempt to get out (as a sophomore in high school), but she's pulled back in to the family business when her dad is framed for stealing some priceless paintings from a very bad guy. AND there's a boy. A fantastic, perfect boy named WW Hale the fifth. It's always more fun to have a narrator read the crazy ac...

My Echo in its New Home, My Island Don't you just love new tech? For Hanukkah, on the fifth night, I asked for, and received, the Amazon Echo from my hubby. What is it? In a nutshell, you can give voice commands to the Echo from anywhere in the room and it listens and obeys. It can add items to a shopping list and to do list. It can add things to your Amazon cart. It can report the weather, or what's on your Google calendar. It can answer questions about common facts and math equations. It doesn't wash your dishes or put your kids to bed. But I have a hunch there's someone at Amazon headquarters working on it. Here's an example of why this thing is so cool: While I was washing dishes last night, everyone left for frozen yogurt. So, while hands still soapy, I asked Echo to turn on my favorite playlist. ( "Alexa, play my Pandora playlist." ) She did. I asked her to turn up the volume. And then I had her skip a song. All while doing the dishes....

Last night I started Chapter 1 of Harry Potter . I'm reading it to the girls before bed. Of course I read it years ago when it first came out. And all the books in the series. But it's been a while since I cracked open the first book. On Sunday, for the last night of Hanukkah, the girls opened this new illustrated edition of Harry Potter (and it's absolutely beautiful!). And we told them about our vacation to Universal Studios in Orlando in February. YAY! And that we'd read the book to prepare for our visit to Harry Potter world. They were way more excited about the trip than the book. Leah knows a bit about Harry Potter, a lot of her pals have read it. She told me yesterday there's even a Harry Potter book club at her school. But she's just got no idea what it's about. Anyway, I had to stop reading twice to control the tears that began to well up when they introduced Lily and James. And then when Albus arrived on Privet Lane. Tonight, the lette...

It's been a fantastic eight crazy nights of Hanukkah. Lots of gifts, smiles and laughter exchanged. And I just love the glow of the menorah with all of the candles lit.

My sisters are coming for Christmas, so I've been spending a lot of time getting the house ready for the onslaught of family -- adult and toddler. One of my tasks is to freshen up the paint color in the guest room. It's the LAST room in the house that is the horrible beige color. I struggled with the paint color for weeks! There's hand-me-down furniture in here. And red curtains I bought quickly when a baby needed to use this room for day-time naps a few years ago. I just wasn't ready to commit to any color scheme or design plan. With my timeline counting down, I had to make my decision and paint this weekend. I pulled color samples, including putting up color swatches on the wall. Blue? Coral? Teal? Peacock blue? Green? Then, on Saturday morning, I had a revelation! My living room in the New Jersey house was a Benjamin Moore color called " shenandoah taupe ," and it was my favorite color in all the house. And guests would compliment the shade, too. It h...

Leah has had an expander on the roof of her mouth for a past few months, making room for all the big teeth coming in (my genetics there, sorry). Today, she got four braces put on the top adult teeth, to straight them out. See how off-center they are?! So cute! Before and After - Braces

The family room mantel is all done up for the season. We've got all of our Hanukkah laid out and ready for the next week of celebration. The girls continue to shake and sort their gifts; they can't keep their hands off of them. Family Room Mantel  The greenery above is sage and eucalyptus. I love the smell but it's drying out much faster than I thought it would. Memo to myself: Go with an evergreen next year. 

It doesn't take much to make me cry. In fact, I'd make a great soap opera actress because I can produce tears on command. So, of course I cried when I saw the new Adele "Hello" video. She digs so deep into that well of longing and regret that I can't help being swept up in the emotion. Which got me to thinking about all the other songs that will abruptly come up on my Pandora station at work or in the car and I'm reduced to tears. I Hope You Dance -- I don't often listen to country stations so Lee Ann Womack doesn't blindside me too often but you'd have to be dead inside not to get weepy at this tune.  Make You Feel My Love  -- This is originally Bob Dylan but Adele does a fantastic version, though I'm partial to the way Tim McGraw sings it. My City of Ruin -- This takes me back to Bruce's 9/11 TV performance which I sobbed through. Like any good Bruce song, it's timeless and universal and sad and hopeful all wrapped up together....

Audiobook: 'Natural Born Charmer' by Susan Elizabeth Phillips Read by: Anna Fields Genre: Romance, Romantic Comedy Phillips is the gateway drug of romance novelists. Her dialogue is hilarious and her characters are flawed and sweet. They were my first contemporary romance novels (or chick-lit) and after reading them I started digging around for more from this genre. Sweet, light, romantic comedies. So, yup, I've read this book a few times since getting it from a used book store almost a decade ago, and it's my favorite SEP romances. Sure, her books are a little dated (flip phones) now. And I can point you to a bunch of newer books that are a tad steamier. But this book is holding up. And the audiobook does it justice. Blue Bailey is a wanderer who survived an itinerate childhood by not getting too attached to people and places. Dean Robillard is a professional football player (this book is part of the Chicago Stars series) and has buried his childhood disa...

This year we flew into Philadelphia and drove to my in-law's house in New Jersey for Thanksgiving because we got a great deal on the airfare. Also an added plus: we spent a night in a hotel in downtown Philly the night before we flew out. Did we see some of the amazing historic sights there? Not really, though we DID see the Liberty Bell on the way to the airport. (It's really small!) No, the main event for us was a visit to the Reading Terminal Market for the BEST COOKIE EVER. Dave talks about these cookies all year and when we get a chance to be in Philly, this is the first place we go. The stall is all the way in the back corner. It's called Hope's Cookies at the Pennsylvania General Store. At the end of the day each cookie is $1. We bought more than enough and not a crumb went uneaten. (Go there, you will not be sorry.) In addition, there's a bunch of other seriously delicious food stuffs here. So we split a grilled cheese sandwich -- amazing. At Re...

This year we were at a cousin's house in Bradley Beach, NJ for Thanksgiving. They lived just a quick walk from the ocean so, of course, I said hello to the extended family (my husband's) and hit the sidewalk as soon as I could to check on the ocean. Yup it's still there! And still amazing. Sunset on Thanksgiving Someday I will live near an ocean again.